Are Kids Not Going Into Computer Science Because Their Parents Want Them To Be Sports Stars?

from the really? dept

There's been some talk lately about how come not as many students are taking computer science in school, and someone over at Information Management online is suggesting that it's all your parents fault for encouraging you to be a baseball star or a CEO or the next American Idol. This seems to be based on nothing more than a hunch, and the whole thing makes no sense to me. My guess is that most people who don't go into computer science don't do it because they're not interested in it. I don't think the answer is to tell your little slugger to put down the baseball bat and spend more time learning BASIC.

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Is It A Good Thing That Computer Science Is 'Cool Again'?

from the maybe-not dept

Computer science is cool again. At least, that's what the headline at Network World says. Apparently, CS enrollments are up for the first time in six years, driven by "teens' excitement about social media and mobile technologies." I'm a CS grad student, so you might expect me to be excited about this development, but I'm not actually sure it's such a good sign. It's great that there are more people considering careers in the IT industry, but I worry about people going into computer science for the wrong reasons. In my experience, if your brain works a certain way, you'll love programming and will have a successful career in the software industry. If it doesn't, there probably isn't much you can do to change that. So I'd love to see more kids explore CS, but if, after taking a couple of classes, they're not sure if CS is the right major for them, then frankly it probably isn't. If you don't enjoy programming, you're almost certainly not going to be a good programmer, and you're not going to be either successful or happy in that career. The fact that you like Facebook or your iPhone definitely isn't enough reason to be a CS major.

I think it would be better if colleges focused on expanding the computer training that non-CS majors receive. Almost every technical field involves manipulating large datasets, and so the ability to write basic computer programs will be a big productivity boost in a wide variety of fields, from economics to biology. Most people aren't cut out to be full-time programmers, but lots of people could benefit from a 1-semester course that focuses on practical data manipulation skills with a high-level scripting language like Perl or Python.

Timothy Lee is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Timothy Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Will Financial Crisis Drive Students Back To CS?

from the but-does-CS-want-them? dept

There's some talk these days about how the financial crisis on Wall Street may be driving some students back to computer science. You may recall that during the dot com boom, enrollment in CS programs boomed, as it suddenly became a fast track to getting rich (or so some folks thought.) But, of course, the end result was that a lot of folks in CS weren't really that into actual computer science, but were just looking for the fastest ticket to getting rich. After the dot com bubble burst, many shifted their attention back to Wall Street, which had been the get rich quick path prior to the dot com boom. So, now that Wall Street seems to be imploding, there's talk again about students coming back to CS. While some see this as a good thing, you're again left with the same question: are these the types of folks who we really want in CS programs? If their sole determinant for area of study is what's likely to make them richest as fast as possible, they're not necessarily the folks who are really going to contribute very much to the space. There's nothing wrong with making labor decisions based on how much it may pay, but folks who focus on getting rich as fast as possible have a habit of screwing things up for everyone else pretty badly at times.

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Is It Better To Study Economics Or Computer Science?

from the how-about-both? dept

Economist Arnold Kling is pointing out that while fewer college students are enrolling in computer science majors, the number focusing on economics is exploding. It's probably a rather cyclical trend -- but Kling suggests this isn't necessarily a bad thing. His point appears to be that you can pick up enough computer science on the side, but that learning economics could come in a lot more handy -- even in the technology industry. Of course, he leaves out the fact that you can also pick up an awful lot of economics on the side. I'd argue that both skills are important, and it's difficult to see one being much more important than the other. If you have a proclivity towards one, then pursue that -- but if you're really skilled, why not learn both?

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